Bihar primary school teachers boycott midday meal, govt to inform SC

Patna: Three lakh primary school teachers across Bihar on Thursday boycotted midday meal duties on the ground that it interfered with their teaching work, a decision slammed as "irresponsible" by the state government which said it would inform the Supreme Court.

Bihar Primary School Teachers Association President Brajnandan Sharma said the mid-day meal duties interfered with teaching duties and also brought a bad name to them because of corruption indulged in by others.

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Repeated requests made to the government to remove primary teachers from midday meal duty and to appoint an agency for the task, were ignored, he said.

The Association was forced to take the step and the boycott would continue till the government appointed an agency for the scheme, Sharma said.

Terming the decision by the primary teachers as irresponsible, Principal Secretary Human Resources Development Amarjeet Sinha said the situation was being evaluated and the Supreme Court would be informed about it.

"The scheme is being implemented on the directives of the Supreme Court ... how can you boycott duty suddenly?" Sinha asked.

He told PTI that he had appealed to the primary teachers to call off their boycott for the welfare of the students.

The flagship programme of the Union government is implemented in 70,200 schools in the state benefiting over 1.30 crore students.

A contaminated midday meal in Saran district had claimed the lives of 23 children on 16 July.